The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition — Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet
About this book
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition — Towards a Rescue Plan for People and Planet, published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in 2023, provides the midpoint assessment of progress toward the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. Released in advance of the SDG Summit in September 2023, this special edition carries an urgent message: the world is badly off track to achieve the SDGs by 2030, and a fundamental course correction is required. The midpoint assessment finds that only about 15% of the 169 SDG targets are on track for achievement by 2030, approximately half are showing moderate or minimal progress, and more than 30% have stalled or even regressed compared to 2015 baselines — the first net reversal in the history of the SDG framework.
The COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), the war in Ukraine (2022-2023), and the resulting food, energy, and cost-of-living crises have erased years of development gains, particularly in SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health), and SDG 4 (Quality Education). The climate and nature-related SDGs (13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water, 15 Life on Land) are among the most off-track. The report documents continued rise in greenhouse gas concentrations, record average temperatures, accelerating biodiversity loss with approximately 1 million species now threatened with extinction, and declining forest cover outside protected area networks.
The financial dimensions of the SDG deficit are examined in detail. Developing countries face an estimated SDG financing gap of $4 trillion per year, constrained by high debt service burdens (many countries now spend more on interest payments than on health or education), limited fiscal space, and inadequate international financial architecture reform. The report calls for restructuring of sovereign debt instruments, scaling up of climate finance commitments from developed to developing nations, and reform of Multilateral Development Bank capital adequacy rules.
Policy acceleration opportunities are identified: several SDGs show concentrations of achievable wins — universal primary education completion, universal access to electricity, universal healthcare coverage — where targeted investment could rapidly shift the trajectory. The report presents these as priority entry points for the SDG Summit rescue plan.